Wiccans Open Way for Teen Members
By Stephanie Innes ("Arizona Daily Star," August 30, 2002)
TUCSON, Ariz. – A network of pagans is opening its ranks to
people under 18 for the first time, hoping to reach what members say is a
growing group of teen witches in the area.
“It can give them a chance to hear from real witches and real
life.Books aren’t enough,” said
Ashleen O’Gaea, a Wiccan high priestess and co-founder of the 14-year-old Tuscon
Area Pagan-Wiccan Network, or TAWN.
Most Wiccans – the most popular
form of paganism – refer to themselves as witches.
They don’t wear pointy hats or talk of flying on broomsticks.But they do try to cast
spells, and use candles, wands and on occasion caldrons, which represent their
goddess’ womb.
The network says it will now allow
teen s16 and older to join, but only as lon as they have the permission of a
parent or guardian.Current members
hope younger people who re practicing on their own can benefit from the
education available through the network.
“We’ve got a large teen population
that is just starting to discover alternative spirituality.
We want them to get a good foundation so
they don’t get involved in the satanic movements and the dark stuff that’s out
there,” said Don Davis, a local druid and member of the network.
The network had 90 members, and
Miss O’Gaea estimates the local pagan population at 240 to 900 people, the
majority of them Wiccan.It’s hard to
know exactly how many Wiccans live in Tucson because many people, particularly
teenagers, practice their faith on an individual basis, she said.
Its members are both male and
female and they worship a goddess and a god, who each have many aspects and
names.One of the cornerstones of the
faith is celebrating nature’s cycles with song, dance, feasting and
ritual.
“We’re not a bunch of psycho
people who bay at the moon,” said 19-year-old Cerridwen Johnson, a Tucson
native and one of a rare group of people who were raised Wiccan.
Miss Johnson, who graduated from high school
in 2001, was named after Cerridwen (pronounced Care-id-wen), a Celtic goddess
of wisdom and inspiration.
“Wicca evolves all the time,” said
Miss Johnson, whose father, Rick Johnson, has written an informational handbook
about the faith for the Tucson Police Department and the US military.
“The beliefs are a skeleton; you
have to add your own muscle and tissue.”
About 600,000 people in the United
States call themselves Wiccan, according to Fritz Jung, co-founder of the
popular Witches’ Voice Web site, www.witchvox.com.
Most teen Wiccans, like
16-year-old Sean Hunter, were not raised pagan.
The high school junior grew up in a Catholic household and became
interested in witchcraft when he was in seventh grade and read “The Wiccan
Mysteries” by Raen Grimassi.
Sean and his friend, 16-year-old
Eve-Marie Brzescynski, recently formed their own coven – a congregation of
Wiccans – for teens.The Silver Moon
Coven gathers for the eight major Wiccan holidays as well as for full moons,
which they call “esbats.”
Wiccans are not Satanists and
would never engage in animal sacrifice, its members say.
“Wicca is a very nonviolent religion,” Miss Johnson said.